Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 50 seconds

Hey jaap… The West should be awake by now, but apparently not blogging yet 😉

Yes, of course learning independence is important… Now I struggle with respecting my two-year old’s budding independence, that sometimes means she wants to sit on the kitchen counter (she calls this position “humpty” after “humpty dumpty”) and then proceeds to push my hand away so she could try jumping. On ceramic floor. Not gonna happen. But otherwise, i try to give her space to make her own choices and construct her own world when i can and it is “safe”.

I guess the key word in what you mention is “safety”. The only advantage of the educational situation is its relative safety, or potential for safety, as opposed to the “real” world, but the learning environment is itself also the “real world” with “real” people in it… I.e. the teacher doesn’t always have control over what occurs (e.g. Children hurting each other physically, verbally, emotionally) – but that is also ok, and is a learning opportunity in itself… As long as we don’t delude ourselves about the safety of things.

Having a child makes this clearer to me; i can put her in a room where i think there is nothing unsafe and she will almost always find a way to do something unsafe with all the safety surrounding her!

Last point: you said something about the Netherlands? It had to struggle for independence? Thought you guys colonized quite a few other places like South Africa? Or are you from somewhere else?